I probably would have the time but I just don't want to. I'd watch them if they would be about the development of the game (either past or future content), but in their current form I could just as well watch a let's play from some random YouTuber.
Why are Fdev so bad at community management?
- Thread starter Lordxenu
- Start date
They are waiting until they have a (mostly) definite release date for the new stuff and a pretty good idea which features will make it into it.
Elite is in maintenance mode, and will be for two years. In two years, whatever community has formed around the game, is largely gone. Especially given how little FD shares of the vision and direction of Elite. Which is why the next big update will effectively be a sequel, with a price comparable to a new game. In the months leading to the update, they'll start the hype mill, but until then we're in the dark. Because someone among the last players to leave switched the lights off and the remaining ones can't find the switch in the dark.
Even the current community exists not thanks to FD, but regardless of them. The game completely fails to deliver multiplayer mechanics that would encourage contribution, cooperation and competition. Instead we got a gank fest called "Open" (don't even mention the PP/BGS and Solo/PG mess), which is effectively open to combat wings only, and even they don't engage each other but rather prey on the poor non-combatants who out of ignorance (newbies) or stubbornness (that's me) brave a universe unable to hold any semblance of law and order when it comes to human players. A whole system fleet of NPCs is unable to stop a wing of gankers, because they don't know how to interdict, and the wing will only engage lone soft targets they'll take out before the authorities arrive. What little in-game community tools exist ("squadrons") is too little, too late. It's all on Discord and other external tools, and the odd newbie who picked up the game on Steam or PS Store sale will never make contact with anyone in-game and shortly gives up.
Don't get me wrong. I love Elite. But it's like being in a relationship with an abusive or alcoholic partner: you're only in it because you hope they will change, but they never do. In the end, when you finally muster the courage to let go, you'll be bitter over all that time you lost.
Even the current community exists not thanks to FD, but regardless of them. The game completely fails to deliver multiplayer mechanics that would encourage contribution, cooperation and competition. Instead we got a gank fest called "Open" (don't even mention the PP/BGS and Solo/PG mess), which is effectively open to combat wings only, and even they don't engage each other but rather prey on the poor non-combatants who out of ignorance (newbies) or stubbornness (that's me) brave a universe unable to hold any semblance of law and order when it comes to human players. A whole system fleet of NPCs is unable to stop a wing of gankers, because they don't know how to interdict, and the wing will only engage lone soft targets they'll take out before the authorities arrive. What little in-game community tools exist ("squadrons") is too little, too late. It's all on Discord and other external tools, and the odd newbie who picked up the game on Steam or PS Store sale will never make contact with anyone in-game and shortly gives up.
Don't get me wrong. I love Elite. But it's like being in a relationship with an abusive or alcoholic partner: you're only in it because you hope they will change, but they never do. In the end, when you finally muster the courage to let go, you'll be bitter over all that time you lost.
There hadn't been an Elite game in 20 years, of course the old guard got hyped during the honeymoon period (but even then just barely enough to get the kickstarted funded).
Now however, we have had Elite Dangerous for 4 years, and we've all had time to get a good reality check and see the flaws in the game and to learn to rein in our expectations. And if even the fanboys among us can be cynical about the game, what do you think other players who have left the game long ago would say if you told them now spacelegs are coming in a year and a half? They'll tell you "cool story tell me more when it's released, not broken and has content... also have they fixed the game already?".
Heck, look at the general sentiment on Star Citizen for an idea of what happens when the hype dies down and gives way to boredom and sourness.
They keep making paintjobs, evidently they sell well enough so the current level of community engagement is enough to keep that milk factory going.
Star Citizen has been hyping for 7 years with no appreciable result, hardly a comparable case.
Well said. One day you stop "believing" in Future Content/Fix To Come, start playing other games, and realize that what you thought was normal isn't normal at all.
This is genuinely what's happened to me
There ya go - dev update. Glad I could make y'all happyThe Elite dev team is indeed working on things for Elite Dangerous.
There ya go - dev update. Glad I could make y'all happy
And the crowd goes mild.
I agree. I've stated a few times recently I'm simply looking for a refund for the LEP value not redeemed. It is clear they are not going to deliver enough within a reasonable timescale to justify my 2015 LEP purchase over the regular Horizons beta package I could have bought.
I believed in them, they have tried, it hasn't worked out & they can just refund the interest free loan I seem to have generously given them instead of paying in advance to save money in the long run. Then they can take all the time they like, be as secretive as they like and I'll just buy whatever eventually gets released.
Yup, time to buy some paint jobs, it's our duty don't you know.
Offer the LEP on permanent or regular sale, offer the ability to back out of it if the customer wants to after all this time with no benefit. Easy.
It has. I just need them to refund the money now, how it happens is less important than that it happens. I went to Cologne in August to discuss this with FDev (it was a fun road trip & a nice party too), they were extremely conciliatory and both Important Community Updates and the freebie snowflake may be related to that but I am still waiting. I'd rather have received more game of course.
If it helps anyone to appreciate where I sit, had I known then what I know now I wouldn't have bought the LEP, I'd have just bought Horizons beta package instead. FDev have sat on that extra money for three and a half years now and it will have been five years by the time the next premium package is delivered. Enough is enough, that is not a reasonable timescale for a customer to see no benefit or know anything about what has been bought in my view.
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
And me too.
LEP's are always a gamble.
I always got the impression that CCP were good at keeping their community engaged through their openness of comms, etc. plus the Eve economic model is completely different to the pseudo-communistic approach that ED has.
That the company remains in business is a gamble, in this case that money is still there & the company is prosperous.
That this was not addressed proactively when the plan changed is the point. I raise it in this thread as an example to the community team of something handled poorly. I had to actually go & talk to them in person to get a response.